19 June, 2015

There really is a tragic predictability about the aftermath of yet another mass shooting.

Whether you agree or disagree with that first sentence, I’ll predict that by now, at least you’re not shocked about it. And that in itself is shocking – that we have reached a point where there can be no rational objection to the expression, “yet another mass shooting.”

What’s tragically predictable is two phrases that will be used. The first is, “Now is not the time to talk about gun control.” Of course it isn’t. It never is. The only time opponents of gun control feel is the right time to discuss gun control is not now, whenever “now” may happen to be.

The other phrase is, “Let’s not make this about race.” We can see why. The (alleged) killer is not a radical Islamist, nor black petty criminal – the kinds who make certain people call for racial profiling as a perfectly good idea. No, he is a pathetic young white male. Or, if I may say so, yet another pathetic young white male. It’s curious that this detail, which features in so many similar acts, is something that so many are asking us to ignore.

It turns out that white people are uncomfortable about being associated with horrific crimes just because of their ethnicity or cultural identity. It makes them feel resentful and defensive to have their background and culture mentioned alongside murder. And that’s entirely fair enough.

First, he suggested that if housing were unaffordable then nobody would be buying it. Well that makes perfect sense. If certain people, however wealthy they may be, or whatever other sacrifices they make, or however much debt they plunge themselves into, can buy something, then it is ipso-facto, affordable, right? Simples!

Then he outdid himself by advising young first home buyers that “the starting point for first home buyers is to get a job that pays good money.”

See? Now why didn’t YOU think of that? Just go and get a good job that pays good money. I had always wondered why so many people work awful jobs for low pay. It turns out it was because nobody told them to get something better. Nobody knows how he expects everyone to do this without further inflating the market and how it squares with one of Australia’s biggest industrialist’s suggestion that Australians are paid far too much.

Of course, such questions are the natural product of thinking things through, something the treasurer obviously didn’t do.

About Me

Computer tutor, IT handyman, presenter of Strawberry Fields Radio, occasional songwriter and musician, and writer of some notes.
Here you will find my thoughts on music, politics, music DVDs and life in general.
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